Little Avengers
by BRB9000
Summary: Avengers AU where the Avengers are Teens or Kids. After months of searching for Bucky, Steve and sam had finally found him, and now he had agreed to stay at avengers tower with the others. "And this is our room. That's your bed. You can put your stuff over here and we can put it away later. Or now if you wan't." Steve said.
1. Chapter 1

After months of searching for Bucky, Steve and sam had finally found him, and he had agreed to stay at avengers tower with the others. It had been a long process. He had to be cleared by Nick Fury, and he had been unsure of living with the Avengers. Bucky didn't want to disrupt what ever they had going. Steve said he wouldn't, but Bucky knew eventually something would happen because of him. He only agreed because Steve wanted him.  
He missed Steve. He had wanted for so long to find him, but he didn't want to create anymore trouble for his friend than he already had. There had been so many long nights, days, weeks, where he was homesick. Homesick for Brooklyn, homesick for the 40's, homesick for his best friend. But Steve hunted him down, and convicted him that everything would be okay. He introduced him to his friend Sam. Bucky liked him; he noticed how Sam cared for Steve, and he appreciated it.

They arrived at Stark tower, and Steve immediately led him to a room on one of the upper floors.

"Well, this is our room. That's your bed. You can put your stuff over here and we can put it away later. Or now if you wan't." Steve said.

"I can go ahead and put my stuff away. There's not a whole lot." Bucky said as he sat his backpack down on the full sized bed by the window and began to take his few belongings out, and sat them on the bed.

"Need any help?"

"No. Um, where do you want me to put my clothes?"

"Oh! Right. Thats you're dresser and we can share the closest."

"Okay." Steve sat down on his bed while Bucky put away two shirts, a pair of pants, a pair of underwear, a few hair ties, and a Glock G43.

"Here you may wanna keep this. For now." He handed Steve the gun.

Steve looked down at the gun. He knew Bucky was still… He didn't know the word for it, but he knew Bucky didn't trust himself. Steve wanted Bucky to know that he trusted him, even if he didn't trust himself. He suggested they put the gun in the closet with the shield.

"Are you sure Tony, It is Tony right? He wont care if I have it?" Bucky asked, after Steve proposed this.

"Well, Natasha keeps hers, Clint has a bow, and Sam has guns. I don't think it'll be a problem. Just don't be like 'Hey, Tony, I have a gun in my closet, I hope you don't mind!'"

Bucky snickered at Steve's dramatic impersonation of him. Then his expression dropped a bit. "But, I'm not… You know…"

Steve walked over to him, and put a hand on his shoulder. "You're fine. Now lets go eat dinner. When was the last time you had a real meal? All I saw in your little apartment was candy bars and chips."

"I had real food." Bucky said, defensively, yet playfully.

"Sure." Everything took a little getting used to. Things where different know. Bucky was different, Steve was different, but they where still the same persons. They were learning to fall back into old groves, and having to adjust to each others new differences.

They walked down to the common area, where most of the others where, and walked over to Tony. Steve tried to introduce them, but Tony interrupted him. Steve prayed it wouldn't end badly. He knew Tony was on the fence about the whole Bucky situation.

"Hey, I'm Tony, and this is my house."

"Hi." Bucky said. They shook hands.

"From what the Captain said I thought you would be older, like, I though you said he was sorta 16?" Tony said, looking over to Steve while saying the last part.

"I am Sixteenish." Bucky said. The gaps in years where weird, but they had just decided he was sixteen. It was just before his sixteenth birthday that Hydra had taken him.

"Oh, just not hit your growth spurt yet, huh. I can't believe that _you_ are HYDRA's deadliest assassin."

"Excuse me?" Bucky wasn't exactly small. Tony was 5'8", and Bucky was just under one inch shorter. Bucky was slightly broader, and more muscular than Tony, but he had to admit that next to Steve he did look on the small side.

"Tony, stop-" Steve started. Bucky didn't let him finish.

"I'm not that short."

"Not just the hight I'm talking about. You've still got a little bit of a baby face."

Bucky new that Tony was just trying to get at him now. Ignoring Bucky's hight, he could and had passed for eighteen. Bucky stared at Tony for a second, while Steve stared at Bucky.

"I- I'm gonna go back upstairs."

"Why would you say that?" Steve was nearly yelling at Tony.

"What? It's true. He looks like, twelve. I thought he would be more like you, since he has the serum and he's an assassin."

"He doesn't look twelve, and you didn't need to tell him that even if he did! You should have at least _tried_ to get off on a good foot with him. He needs to feel comfortable." Steve argued.

"It's not my fault he's sensitive, Steve." Tony said.

"He's not sensitive. He only left because he didn't want to start a fight his first day here."

"It was kinda rude, Tony. You could have at least shown him around before you ticked him off." Natasha walked over to the two. "And yes I was listening to the whole thing."

"Look, Tony, he's trying his hardest. Do you know what it took him to even consider coming here? I barely got him to come." Steve said.

"I know you have cold feet about this, Tony, but he's no more dangerous or unforgivable than I am. You need to give him a chance." Natasha said.

"Alright. I'll give him a chance." Tony said.

Bucky walked back to his room and lied down across the middle of his bed and stared at the ceiling. If this was how Tony was all the time, he wasn't sure if he would be able to stay here. It was Tony's house after all. But he would try his hardest for Steve. Though, there was only so much he could take.

Bucky had noticed the red headed girl on his way out. She looked about his age, and for some reason she seemed familiar. He brushed it off. He had probably just seen her in a file some where, or in the papers, since she was probably one of the avengers that stayed here.

He heard someone walking towards the room, and he could tell from the sounds of the footsteps it was Steve.

"Hey, Buck?" Steve called, as he opened the door, and walked over to Bucky's bed. He played down next to him.

"Yeah?"

"Sorry about that. He has a little bit of a big mouth. He'll warm up to you soon, though."

"It's fine. I just didn't want to argue with anyone" Bucky answered, never moving from his position on the bed or turning his attention from the ceiling. "So… What do you usually do around here?" Bucky asked.

"Well, there's a pool, training room, and some other things. When we aren't doing mission we spend a lot of time in the common area, thats where we where just at, and the ones that aren't out of high school or have a GED do online classes. I got my GED, and I'm taking some college classes. Sometimes we walk around town and stuff, too."

"School. You do school and work out. Thats all you do. I know it is, it's so like you."

"There's nothing wrong with liking to learn. You're going to have to do it to. Part of the whole avengers set up is that we have to either have graduated high school, get your GED, or be enrolled in a high school."

"Why did I come with you again?" Bucky asked. He didn't like school. He liked learning, but he hated the overwhelming commitment to big books, full of meaningless information. He hated test, and quizzes, and having to know things that weren't important that he would just forget later on in the year. He already knew he would just study, and when summer was over he would get his GED, and be done with it all. There didn't seem to be any reason for him to go to college. He seemed doomed to a life of fighting. He knew Steve was, too. College and a normal job and life where wishful thinking for them, even at there "age".

"Because you love me." Steve answered grinning.

"Sure. Where's Sam? Does he stay here?"

"Yeah, he stays here. I honestly don't know where he is, though. I haven't talked to him since I text him this morning. You know, you two seem to get along pretty well. I think you'll like Natasha, too. She really reminds me of you." Steve sad.

"Was that the red head?" Bucky asked.

"Yeah, did you meet her?"

"Yeah… I mean no. I- uh, I saw her. I think I know her from somewhere."

Steve gave him a questioning look. "Where?"

Bucky could't give him an answer.

"Well do you want to go meet everyone else? Or do you want to continue sulking about your baby face."

"Please stop."

Steve laughed. "Come on."


	2. Chapter 2

"So, Clint, how long has your front tooth been missing?" Bucky asked. Clint hadn't left him alone since they had been introduced the night before, and Steve, Tony, and Natasha (He still hadn't been introduced to her.) where called on a mission that morning, so there was no escaping him.

"About two years! Do you wanna hear the story?" Clint asked. Bucky was certain that he was going to hear it no matter his response.

"Sure." He said. He had nothing better to do, and Clint, loud and talkative as he was, was starting to grow on Bucky.

"Okay, so one dark stormy night I snuck out into the big ring. Everything was still set up from practice. Well I climbed up onto the tight rope, and-" Clint started, but Bucky interrupted.

"Tight rope?" Bucky asked.

"Yeah, at the circus! Thats where I'm from. Anyways, I climbed up to the very top and put one foot out on the tight rope. I could hear thunder and lighting, butI kept going, one foot then the other, I was just 1.890254656 feet from the other side when all the sudden my foot slipped right out from under me! Next thing I know I'm falling on my face, and my tooth got caught in the net at the bottom! And it wasn't a baby tooth either. I thought for sure that was it. I was going to die,lying there in the safety net as the heavens cried there tears over me, but my brother, Barney, said he heard me scream when I fell and rescued me. We just pulled the tooth all the way out and stuffed it with gauze." Clint said, barely taking a breath through the whole thing.

"Thats… Quite a story you got there. Now, tell me, how much of to was real?" Bucky asked.

"Okay, so, I did sneak out, but it wasn't storming and I tripped as soon as I stepped on the rope, but I had to make it interesting!"

"So you have a brother?" Bucky asked.

"I used to. I-I don't wanna talk about it. It's why I'm here." Clint said.

"Thats okay, you don't have to if you don't want to." Bucky assured him.

"He was really mean, but he was my best friend and we did everything together, but he started stealing and he tried to get me to help, and I did at first, but I realized that it was bad and I stopped. I tried to get him to stop too, but he wouldn't listen to me. He said it was the only way for us to survive since our parents are gone, but I don't think it was, and then one night he made me go with him. We where on our way to somewhere, and he wouldn't tell me where. We ran into somebody who knew him, and knew what he did. They got into a fight and the guy had a gun. It was my fault."

"It wasn't your fault, Clint. Why would you think that?" Bucky asked.

"Because I didn't get him to stop stealing. I could have kept telling him it was wrong instead of giving up."

"You are never responsible for anyones actions but your own." Bucky said. _Speak for yourself,_ Bucky thought to himself. "Your brother knew What he was doing was wrong, but he did it anyways. You where how old? like 7?"

Clint had tears in his eyes. "I was 8."

"Still. It wasn't your fault. What anyone else does is never your fault. You need to remember that, okay?" Bucky said.

"Thanks." Clint said. He still hadn't perked back up.

"So how long have you lived here then?" Bucky asked, trying to change the subject. he could tell Clint was done talking for now.

"One year, nine months, two weeks, 21 days. Do you wanna know how I know all of that?" Before waiting for an answer he began again. "Okay so I mark all the days on my wall with my arrow. Nat told me I shouldn't damage the wall, so she gave me a journal and I write aaaaaallll the days in it. Every morning I mark off a day, and I organize them into months and weeks every night before I go to bed."

"Are you lying about that, too?" Bucky asked.

"He's not. Trust me." Steve and the rest had just walked in the hallway.

"You're back! Can we eat now? Bucky made me a sandwich, but we didn't have mustard! And I can't eat a sandwich with out mustard, so I just didn't eat. That's what Sam said to do." Clint said.

"…It was a peanut butter jelly sandwich…" Bucky said.

"Don't judge my eating habits when you use honey wheat bread."

"Where's sam?" Natasha asked.

"I… I think he's somewhere." Clint said.

"Thanks, Clint." Natasha said.

"He's in the training room or the shower. I'm not sure which." Bucky answered a little shyly.

"Why isn't he watching Clint?" Tony asked Bucky. He glared incredulously at Bucky.

"I don't know. He told me to." Bucky said, directing his attention to the floor.

"Bucky is waaaay better than Sam." Clint started. " We played video games, shot my bow, and he let me have ice cream right after you guys left. Did you know he can't shoot a bow and arrow? He only shoots guns, But I think he shou-"

"That's great, Clint. I'm gonna go get a shower." Tony said, walking off. Steve glared at him.

Natasha had already left to do the same. Steve walked over to them, and put an arm around Bucky. "How did everything go? I'm sorry I had to leave on your first day here."

"Steve, stop apologizing, I'm fine on my own. And it was good." Clint looked at them, and being disinterested, walked over to the couch to resume watching the movie that they had playing in the back ground. "Clint talks a lot doesn't he?"

"A little bit, yeah." Steve said with a laugh as he started toward the kitchen, while Bucky followed.

"So how did the mission go?" Bucky asked as he lifted himself up to sit on the counter.

"Pretty boring. Tony fell in a dumpster, though. I honestly don't know how it happened, but it was pretty funny."

"Wow." Bucky said.

"So what did you do today?" Steve asked.

"Basically babysat Clint. We played a some game on the TV, he showed me his bow, and tried to show me how to shoot it, and he told me about his tooth and calendar among many other stories."

"He likes to tell the tooth story; it's different every time."

Bucky smiled. He missed this. Sitting in the kitchen and having conversations with Steve. It's was nice to be together again. Steve leaned against the opposite counter to Bucky, and ate the sandwich he made. "Do you want anything to eat?"

"I'm good. We had lunch about an hour ago." Bucky paused for a second. Steve could tell there was something he wanted to say, so he stayed quiet and waited. "He, uh, told me about his brother, Barney?"

Steve looked shocked. "He's never told anyone about that. He wouldn't even tell the police."

There was a loud crash in the living area followed with an "I'm okay!" from Clint.

"We better check on him." Steve said. They walked into the living space to see clint struggling to flip the couch bak over. Bucky walked over and flipped it back.

"It was an accident." Clint looked scared.

"You're not in trouble. It's fine." Steve said.

Bucky cocked his head a little. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm gonna go find Natasha."

"Alright. Don't leave this floor with out telling me or Bucky, okay?"

"Yep!" Clint called, already running out of the room.

"Well, I should probably go get a shower. Could you keep an eye on him? Just kinda stay out here and listen for him. I mean, you don't have to if you don't want to. I can get Sam."

"I know, Steve. I will. Go get a shower, you smell terrible."


	3. Chapter 3

Steve walked out of the bathroom from his shower, into his and Bucky's room to see Bucky laying on his bed. "Hey, there. Aren't you supposed to be watching Clint?"

"He found Natasha." Bucky said, with out looking up from his phone at Steve.

"So, you figured out how to use that?" Steve asked as he went through his drawers to find some clothes.

"Yeah. It wasn't hard."

"Thats what I tried to tell S.H.E.I.L.D. , but the insisted I take a course on technology." He pulled out a blue t-shirt and a pair of sweat pants and walked back to the bathroom.

He came back out, dressed, and looked at Bucky, who was wearing the same clothes that he had been wearing for the two days that he had been there. "We need to go shopping."

"Doesn't Tony have people that do that for him?"

"Not groceries, dummy. Clothes."

"Have any money?" Steve interrupted.

"Yeah."

"S.H.E.I.L.D. does. They pay for food and clothing since we're minors. I'm in charge of the spending, since I'm the only one they trust not to blow the money on dumb stuff. You free tonight?"

"Do you think _I_ have plans?"

"Get you're shoes on then."

Bucky grabbed his black combat boots from under the bed, and sat down on his bed to lace them up.

"Also, would it be okay if Natasha cam with us? She knows more of whats in style and stuff."

Natasha. His heart skipped a beat. He had been think more and more about her, trying to place her. She had been avoiding him, and he had been avoiding her. But Steve wanted her to go, and he was probably right. "That's fine."

Steve sent her a text as they where walking to the elevator. "She's coming. She said to wait of her at the elevator by the common room."

"Alright. So do you know your way around?"

"Fairly. Natasha does though. She's lived her for 3 years now? Something like that."

"Talking about me, Rogers?" Natasha asked as she walked towards them.

"There is no way I'm wearing blue shorts."

"Come on! They'll look good on you. They match your eyes." Natasha said.

"No."

"Alright. What do you like?"

"I don't know. I like normal clothes."

"Jeans and a T-shirt? Or like jeans and a dress shirt? That would look good on you." Natasha grabbed a light blue dress shirt, three different sizes of jeans, and the three of them walked to the dressing rooms.

Bucky walked out of the dressing room. "I think I like this one." He said. "These pants are to tight in the butt though."

"Go try try on the next size up then." Steve said.

"I'm going to go get some other things for you to try on. I'll be right back." Natasha walked over to the pants and grabbed a pair of black skinny jeans, and grabbed a blue T-shirt with a space ship on it. She threw the clothes over top of the door of the fitting room.

"Hey!"

"Try it on."

He walked out of the fitting room.

"I like it." He said.

"So, lets get the jeans that fit, the khakis, and two pairs of the black pants?" Natasha asked. Bucky looked to Steve for confirmation. Both nodded. "Alright, and the shirts. You're getting the dress shirt, the black t-shirt, and the spaceship shirt. So you need under wear, sweat pants, a hoodie, and a few more shirts."

"And shoes." Steve said.

"I'll change back then." Bucky said.

"Do you want to pick out the shirts?"

"No, there's to many."

Natasha walked back over to the t-shirts, and grabbed three shirts; a plain blue one, a red and grey baseball-T, a dark blue long sleeve under armor shirt, a red short sleeve under armor shirt, and a navy blue one, two pairs of grey sweat pants, and a red hoodie.

"Alright. You don't have to try these on if you don't want to."

"I'm not trying them on then. Can we get the shoes, and go back to the tower?"

"Not having fun?" Steve asked with a slight smirk.

"There's to many people and things." Bucky said.

"Oh! You need swim shorts!" Steve said.

"Oh, uh, I don't really like swimming."

Steve cocked an eyebrow. "You don't?"

"We'll get a pair anyways. You might change your mind latter." Natasha said.

"I probably wont."

They ignored him, grabbed a pair, checked out, and went to the shoe store.

"Why are they all plastic? When I was a kid-"

"You still _are_ a kid, James." Natasha said. _James…_ It was sweet, and familiar, and caught him of guard. He realized just how comfortable he had been with her today. There had been no awkward attempts at conversation, instead they had gone straight into playful teasing, and conversation like they had know each other their whole lives.

He smiled, and turned away, to hide the blush creeping onto his cheeks.

"What size do you wear?" Natasha asked.

"A eight or a nine."

"We're the same size, then. Here." Natasha said pulling out a pair of black Chuck Taylor's. "These will match your clothes."

"They're kinda weird looking, though aren't they?"

"They're pretty popular, actually." Steve said.

Bucky tried them on. "They fit. I like them."

"Okay so you need some running shoes, and then we're done." They got a pair of grey and red Nike's, and they went back to the tower.

"Bucky, stop daydreaming about Natasha, and help me put _your_ clothes away." Steve said, sitting in a pile of clothes Bucky had just thrown on the floor after the had gotten out of the dryer.

"I wasn't- Stop."

"I know you like her. I think she likes you, too."

"I don't have a crush on her."

"I saw you blush when she called you James."

"I didn't blush!" He said, as he picked up a shirt to fold. "She just seems familiar or something. The more I see her and talk to her the more I think I know her from somewhere."

"Ask her."

"What? No I- I don't-"

"Ask her."

"Maybe I will some time. I don't wanna talk about this anymore…"

"Okay, you wanna go walk around the tower when we're done? I could go show you the roof and the pool."

"Sure. Maybe not the pool."

"Why not the pool? You used to love swimming."

"Well, I don't now."

"Okay." Steve decided to let it go. Even though Bucky was the same person, some things had changed. Steve didn't want to press him to hard.

When they finished they went up to the roof. The view was amazing, but at the same time Bucky kinda wanted to puke even though he had jumped from these nights before. He followed Steve, who walked to the edge of the building.

"I like to sit up here and draw. I come out here at sun rise some times, or at night when I can't sleep." Steve said. Steve had always liked heights. He was never afraid to jump out of a plain, or jump from roof top to roof top, or fall from roof tops (which happened quite frequently).

When they had lived in Brooklyn, he had done the similar things. After Steve's mom had died, Bucky had woken in the middle of the night to find Steve gone, and found him on the roof, crying, and clutching a photograph of his mother, while his sketch book's pages where disrupted by the wind.

"It's nice up here. I see why you like it so much. You can see the whole city, but the noise and smells can't hardly reach."

"Yeah." Steve said, with a far off look on his face. "Well, what do you wanna do now?" Steve asked, suddenly coming back out of his head.

"It doesn't matter."

"Do you wann- Hold on just a sec." Steve's phone was ringing. "Tasha?"

 _"_ _You need to come to the common room."_

"Why? Is something wrong?"

 _"_ _Sorta. Bruce is having a melt down because- Hey, it's okay just breath- Clint said something about Betty, I don't think its gonna be bad, but…"_

"Alright, we're on our way. Is Sam down there?"

 _"_ _Yeah, he's got-"_

 _"_ _This is Sam. Steve?"_

"Yeah. I'm assuming you have Clint, right?"

" _Yeah, Natasha's got Bruce. Okay so this is what happened. Clint was playing with Kate because her dad is in a business meeting with Tony and some other people right now, and Bruce was with them to and I''m not sure what Clint said, but it upset Bruce pretty bad. so, if you want to send Bucky to Clint's room to help me figure out what happened, and you go help Natasha calm him down and clean up the glass before Katie's dad gets down there that would be perfect."_

"Glass."

 _"_ _Yeah, he started turning a little green. Call me when its clear, so I can bring them back down."_

"Okay. We're almost there." Steve hung up the phone. "Okay, so you go to Clint's room and help Sam. He'll explain it to you."

"Alright." Bucky said, taking an opposite turn to Steve as the exited the elevator.

He arrived at Clint's room to see piles of dirty laundry, old food, and a little black haired girl, who looked about 3, jumping on the bed, while Sam and Clint where sitting on the floor. Clint's face was unreadable, and Sam's was serious. As soon as Clint saw Bucky walk through he rushed to him.

"I didn't mean to make him Hulk out."

"Why don't you tell Sam that. I have no idea whats going on."

"Clint. It's okay. You're not in trouble. I just need to know what you said." Sam said, as he stood up.

"Can you tell me what happened?" Bucky asked Clint. Clint shook his head. "What if Sam and the little girl stood outside."

"Her names is Kate, and Maybe." _That means yes._ Sam nodded and picked Katie up, and walked out, closing the door behind him.

"So what happened?"

"Kate and I where jumping on the couch and watching Shrek, and Bruce was reading and he told us to be quiet because we where yelling and stuff and we told him to read in his room if he wanted quiet. And he said this was everyones room and we could be loud in my room and we kept arguing back and forth and Natasha told us to quit. But he muttered something about the circus and I said I hoped Betty wouldn't come back, and I wouldn't take it back, and then he started Hulking out."

"Whose Betty?"

"Bruce's best friend. We don't know where she is because when Bruce ran away a last year, she just kinda disappeared, and no-one knows where she is." Clint was crying a little.

"It's okay, Clint. It was just as much Bruce's fault as yours. Can I tell this to Steve and Sam later so we can get this straightened out?"

"Yeah."

"Alright. I'm gonna go get Sam now. Thanks for telling me."

Bucky walked out the door. "Steve says it's clear. We should probably take at Kate down stairs."

"Okay. You coming, Clint?"

"Yep! Can I carry baby Kate?"

"Don't drop her." Sam said handing the toddler over to Clint. She was awkward in his arms, since Clint was so small anyways. They walked down to the common room just in time to return Kate to her dad.

Tony had walked up with him, and was now laying on the couch, jacket, shirt, shoes and socks laying on the floor beside him. "Pizza's here, if anyones hungry." Steve Called.

Tony was the first one at the table, and everyone else followed. Bucky sat down beside Steve, which had become his spot at the table. Clint was rocking his chair back and forth.

"Clint, you're going to fall backwards,split your head open, and we'll have to take you to the hospital and they'll have to amputate your right hand." Tony said. Clint stopped.

"Why would they amputate my hand if I hit my head, dummy?"

"Because science says so. So what did everyone do today? Was I the only one who had the most boring day of their life?" Tony asked, with his mouth full of pizza.

"Steve and I took Bucky shopping." Natasha said. "And Bruce and Clint got in a fight."

"Again guys? Really?"

Steve shook his head signaling for Tony to stop.

"Okay, okay. So popsicle number two got some new clothes. You like shopping?"

"Not really." Bucky answered.

"I do!" Clint said, well, yelled.

"We know." Tony replied. "So, Bucky, you and Cap have always been besties, right?"

"Since we met in first grade, so yeah, basically."

"Tell us about him. Was he always as annoying and mother hen-ish as he is now?"

"Yeah, the only thing different about him is he can lift things and breath." Bucky said with a slight smirk. "And girls will actually talk to him now." Steve turned a little red.

Tony laughed, "Is it true that he's never had a girlfriend?"

"Oh, yeah. I was always trying to find him someone but they always ditched him as soon as they caught a glance."

"Buck…" Steve warned. Bucky didn't listen.

"One time there was this girl named Mariss-"

"Shut up. Now." Steve said. He meant it.

"No! Steve we need to hear this!" Tony said.

"No, you don't. Bucky, you better not tell them, or I'm telling them about the milk crate incident."

Bucky thought it over for a second, and decided that it wasn't worth it.

"Okay, fine." Bucky said, raising his hands in surrender.

"Well I have something I need to repair on my suit. It got a piece ripped off when, you know." Tony said, putting his plate in the sink.

"Yeah, I need to sew up some of my suit. It got ripped because of, _you know_." Natasha said, targeting the last part at Tony.

"It's you bedtime Clint, and Sam I think it's your turn."

"Okay, I'll beat you, Sam." Clint said, and broke into a sprint.

Bucky put his plate in the sink, and walked over to Steve, who was putting the extra pizza in the fridge. Everyone else was gone.

"You did fine." Steve said.

"What?"

"You where good. Don't be nervous. Everyone likes you, and I think you've about got Tony on your side now, too. You ready to go to bed?"

"Yeah, I'm tired."

"Let's go. I got a text from Fury earlier, and I think you're going to be able to go on missions pretty soon if you're wanting to."

"I'd like that. I honestly can't see myself every doing anything besides missions and stuff like that every again."

"Me either. Sometimes I think, maybe it was a mistake. You know, joining the army, but then I think. Look at all the difference we've made, and it makes me regret it a little less."

"I shouldn't have. I regret it everyday."

"You wanted to serve you're country, to protect it. You did all you could do. Remember in London, when you found that baby? She would have died if it hadn't been for you. It's the little things."

"I guess."

"You've done more good than you can imagine, Buck. I hope you'll be able to see it someday."

"Me too." He said, opening the door to their room, and climbing into his bed.

"Good night Bucky." Steve said turning off the light. Bucky didn't go to sleep for a while.


	4. Chapter 4

"-Bucky. Wake up. Bucky."

Bucky's eyes opened and his legs wouldn't support him any longer, and Steve grabbed him as he fell. Steve sat down on the floor, holding Bucky. Bucky was shaking and Steve

could feel his sleeve becoming damp.

"Shh, it's okay, it was just a dream. You're safe. You're with me. Just breathe."

Steve held him tight, and Bucky clung to him like a life line. Bucky new this was bound to happen at some point, but he had hoped he could hold it off a little longer.

Bucky sniffed a little. "Sorry." he said, starting to stand up after he had calmed down a little after a few minutes.

"Nothing to be sorry for." Steve said, standing up. They stood there for a few minutes, and Steve Asked JARVIS to dim the lights. "You're not going to be able to go back to

sleep for a while, are you?"

Bucky shook his head.

"You wanna push our beds together and make one giant bed?"

Bucky smiled and wiped his face with his sleeve. "Sure." They moved the night stands out of the way, and took all the blankets and pillows off, and pushed the beds together.

They piled all of the pillows and blankets up, and climbed in.

"Just like old times, except it's not two little beds." Steve said.

"Yeah, and we aren't doing it so we wont freeze."

"Yeah, that's a plus, too. So, what are you thinking about all of this? We haven't really gotten a chance to talk yet." Steve said.

"I think I like it here, but… I don't know. It's so different; nothings the same. It's still all kind of a shock. Even though I was around to see the major changes, or they

where programmed into me, I wasn't really a part of them, you know? I was just sort of standing on the outside watching everything happen. I guess now I'm just kinda home

sick."

"Me too." Steve said. "I think about it a lot, the days when our biggest problems where how we where going to pay the heat bill."

"Oh, c'mon. We had bigger problems than that. Between my dad, and both our moms dying we had some pretty big problems."

"The situation with your dad was bad, and we knew my mom was going to die for a while. It didn't change much. But your mom dying was kinda sudden."

"Yeah. I guess it all worked out. If my dad hadn't kicked me out we wouldn't have had all those 'adventures'. " Bucky felt sick just thinking about his family. He had been

close with his mom, and when she had died and his sisters went off to boarding school, he had had nothing left but Steve. He wished he could just let things go like Steve did.

Steve always recovered quickly, while Bucky tended to dwell on them longer than he should. Sure Steve was still upset, but he didn't let it effect his future. Bucky couldn't say

the same for himself.

"You know, Clint really likes you." Steve said after a long pause. He could tell Bucky wasn't up for talking about his family. Steve could never figure out if he wanted to

talk about it, but didn't know what to say, or he didn't want to talk about it. Steve had always been patient, and waited for Bucky to say something, but he never did.

Bucky laughed. "I've noticed."

"He trusts you, and he doesn't trust anyone. He's never told any of us about his brother. It's a really touchy subject for him. The only way any of us know is because we had

to read the police report before he came here."

"That reminds me. Why is he here?" Bucky asked.

"Because of the incident with his brother, and SHEILD was impressed with his abilities. He's not aloud to go on missions or anything until he's thirteen, but he's here so we

can train him. He's extremely gifted with a bow and arrow, and can hit literally any target. S.H.E.I.L.D. found out about him when his brother died, and sent him here since he

didn't have any family."

"He said it was his fault. That his brother died. He didn't tell me why, he just said he could have pushed him more into making the right decision."

"He says that, and I think thats his take on the whole thing. But he went to a therapist for a while because of the whole incident, and the report said that when his brother died,

the guy he was fighting had a gun, and the guy fired, and Clint knocked the gun out of the guys hand by throwing a little metal rod at the gun. He dived and grabbed it and the

shooter tried to get him to put it down, but his brother told him to shoot the guy. Clint shot the guy twice in the lower chest and once in the arm. The guy died a few days later, but

Clint doesn't know that."

"Wow. And he was 8?"

"Yeah, that sounds right."

"Why does he trust me? He doesn't even know me." Bucky said.

"You're just that type of person, I guess. I trusted you from the start, too."

"Yeah, but that was different. I saved your life."

"You didn't save my life. I wasn't going to die. You just say that. It wasn't even a big fight, I had it completely under control, and I didn't need any help."

"But it was appreciated." Bucky said, a huge grin on his face.

"Would you just shut up? Go to sleep. It's like 2:30."

"Fine. Goodnight, Stevie."

"I'm just gonna let you have nightmares next time."

Bucky laughed, and smiled at Steve, then turned over onto his other side. He slept peacefully the rest of the night.


	5. Chapter 5

Steve woke up about 7:00 o'clock in the morning to Bucky laying diagonally across the bed with his face in Steve stomach, and the blankets wrapped around Bucky's legs. Bucky had always been bad about tossing and turning, even before nightmares. He rarely woke up in a vaguely similar position to the one he fell asleep in.

Steve laid there for a while; he knew Bucky needed as much sleep as he could get, even though it was very uncomfortable, and he wasn't sure how Bucky could breathe. After about half an hour, Steve some how slipped out from under Bucky, covered him up with a blanket, and went to the bathroom to get a shower as soon as he realized his shirt was soaked in drool. _Why me…_ He muttered to himself.

Steve was dressed and showered by 8 A.M., but Bucky was still asleep. He decide this was a good time for a payback that was way over due. He walked to the farthest edge of the room, ran as fast as he could, and jump on the bed. Steve had never seen Bucky move so fast. With in a split second Bucky was out of the bed and against the back wall, with a looked of true horror on his face. Steve was laughing so hard there where tears. "I hate you so much." Bucky breathed out between pants.

"Remember that time in the war? Payback's a you-know-what."

Bucky got back in the bed and threw the blankets on top of himself. "Never talk to me again."

"C'mon! Get up." Steve said, ripping the blankets off of him, and throwing them across the room.

"No! Stop, it's cold, Steve." Bucky said, his voice muffled by the pillow his face was buried in. "Not everyone likes getting up at the break of dawn, you know."

"It's eight! Wanna watch T.V?" Steve asked. Steve had always been a morning person, and Bucky was the complete opposite. Steve always insisted on waking Bucky, which annoyed him to no end.

"I wanna go back to sleep." Bucky mumbled into the pillows.

Steve flopped onto the foot of the bed(s) after grabbing the remote off of the T.V. stand, and flipped threw the channels for a while.

"Wait. I've seen this show." Bucky said, sitting up.

" _Say Yes to the Dress_?" Steve asked. He had seen Clint and Natasha watching it once or twice, but hand't really been intrigued by it himself.

"Yeah, I watched it while I was on the run." Bucky said.

Steve laughed. "Are you serious? _You_ watch a show about _shopping_ for _wedding_ dresses?"

Bucky hid back under the covers and groaned.

"Stop. We'll watch it." Steve said, still laughing. Bucky hated shopping, and weddings. Steve didn't really know why he hated weddings, but something told him he really didn't.

"This is so stressful." Bucky complained after a few minutes.

"Buck. They're literally at the best wedding dress shop in the States, and they always end up finding a dress."

"It doesn't make it any less stressful. Why doesn't her mom like it? Why does her mom even care that much? She already had a wedding, it's her daughters turn. Imagine all the things you could do with $11,000. They are spending $11,000 on a dress. She could buy a house, a new car, she could travel the world, but she's buying a dress. Eleven thousand dollars, Steve. That is so much money, and it's not even the most expensive one!"

"You need to relax."

"I can't. She's spending $11,000 on a DRESS, Steve!"

"If you don't shut up I am changing the channel." Steve said.

"No, don't, I wanna watch it." Bucky said.

 _"My budget is $16,000."_

Bucky looked at Steve. "I'm gonna scream."

Steve turned the T.V. off. "Let's do something else."

"It''s to early." Bucky complained.

"It's eight-thirty! I should probably go make coffee."

"I'll go with you, I guess." Bucky said.

They walked down to the kitchen in the common area. Clint was sitting at the table with a bowl of cereal in front of him. He looked like he was about to fall asleep right there.

"Natasha made me get up." Clint mumbled. Bucky sat down in the seat in front of him.

"Steve made me get up." Bucky said. Clint's head started to fall forward, but he jerked back up.

"Are you okay?" Bucky asked.

"Mhm."

"He hasn't had coffee yet." Steve said.

"He drinks coffee? He's 10."

"All men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, like coffee." Clint said.

Bucky stared at him for a second, then went over to Steve. "You want some coffee?" Steve asked.

"Sure. Where's the cereal?"

"In the cabinet to the left of the fridge."

Bucky sat back down at the table, and ate his cereal, while Clint downed two cups of coffee. Just as Steve joined them, Clint got up and ran at top speed out of the kitchen.

"Clint you forgot- Never mind. He never puts his dishes in the sink. Just like you."

"Where is he going?" Bucky asked.

"Who knows. He's probably going to go hunt down Nat."

"What are we doing today?" Bucky asked.

"Well actually, Nick Fury wanted to meet with you at noon to talk about going into the field. If you're ready, and you want to. We can reschedule if you want, but I thought you where probably ready, I mean you don't have to if you don't want to. I probably should have asked you fi-"

"I'm ready."

"Good. They'll have to run some tests. They will do a physical and a psych exam, and you'll have to take test thing on the computer that finds out you're personality traits." Steve said. He was trying to act positive about this, but he knew Bucky wasn't ready. He knew that was what the test where for, but he also knew Bucky had been trained to pass them. Steve knew Bucky wasn't above manipulating the tests.

"Will they put us as partners for missions?" Bucky asked. At that moment Steve saw something in Bucky's eyes that he hadn't seen in a long time.

"I already asked that, and he said yes." Steve knew Bucky was going to pass for sure now.

"Good." Bucky couldn't hide the smile that crept onto his face. Steve couldn't help smiling, also. It would be great to have his partner back. Hopefully all would go well.

They finished their cereal, and got they're daily workout in.

"I call the shower." Bucky Said as soon as they where done, and sprinted out of the room.

"Not if I get there first." Steve ran after him. He began to catch up to Bucky, but Bucky wouldn't let him get in front.

"You've never beat me before and you're not gonna today either, Stevie." Bucky said between breaths, he began to speed up. The came to the the stairs, and Bucky opened the door just enough to squeeze through, and slammed it shut. He Climbed up the railing, instead of running up the steps. They where just at the door to their room, and they where almost tied, when Bucky jumped and kicked off Steve and did a flip mid air though the open door. He jumped up of the ground and slid into the bathroom, and locked the door.

"That's cheating!" Steve yelled, as he picked himself up off the ground.

"I don't care!" Bucky said, his voice muffled by the sound of the shower.

"What was that?" Sam said, walking into Steve and Bucky's room.

"What?" Steve said, with a deadpan expression.

"Don't give me that. I saw you get knocked on your butt."

We where racing, and Bucky cheated a little."

Sam laughed. "Yeah, I figured that much out. Do you two not know how to clean?" Sam said. Steve looked around. All of the blankets and pillows where on the floor, and the beds where in the center of the room. Not to mention the dirty clothes that where sitting in piles around the room.

"That was Bucky."

"Sure. I'm going to go check on Clint."

Steve decided that this was probably a good time to clean up. He put the all the clothes in the baskets, and put the blankets back on he bed.

"I'm done." Bucky said walking out with a towel around his waste. "I'll Just change in here."

When Steve got out Bucky was asleep on top of the piles of blankets. He decided to be kinder this time. "Bucky, we gotta go." Steve said softly, shaking his shoulder.

"Yep." Bucky rolled over, stood up, and stretched.

They rode the elevator down to the floor where they where supposed to meet Fury. The elevator dinged, indicating they where at the floor.

"You ready?" Steve asked.

Bucky breathed in deeply. "I think so."


	6. Chapter 6

**(Update from 2017) Hello all! Fixing this chapter due to a request. I will hopefully be able to slowly fix this story up as I am writing new chapters. This story was kinda written because I needed practice writing, and I will be revising it for the same reasons (also because I had an idea that I just could not get out of my head, and now it has come back). BUT thank you all so much for reading this story and leaving such kind reviews (especially to forsakenfoxshadow for causing me to get with it) even though a lot (99% at least) of it is pretty crappy. Love ya'll!**

Bucky really had though he was ready. He really had. But when the elevator doors opened, and a dozen eyes fell on him, he was not so sure. One of the sets of eyes walked towards them, hand stretched out. Steve took the hand in his, shook, and then the eyes were talking. The hand reached out to him.

 _What?_

 _Handshake. Oh._

Bucky took the hand in his.

 _Words. Listen._

"-But you can call me Phil. Do you go by Bucky?"

Bucky managed a nod. _Breath._

"Alright! Well, Bucky, I'm currently the bridge between the Avengers and SHEILD. I'm just here to help with a few tests so we can clear you to do missions. I assume Steve has told you about them?"

Bucky swallowed hard. "Yeah."

"Okay, follow me." The walked through a door, and down another hall. More faces. More _eyes_.

"You two wait here for just a second." He slipped off into one of the many offices.

"You okay?" Steve asked.

Bucky nodded.

"If you wanna leave, just tell me, okay? You don't have to do this." Steve paused, and placed a reassuring hand on Bucky's shoulder.

"It's fine." Bucky took half a step backwards.

Steve sighed. Bucky's right hand was trembling. "I shouldn't have press-"

The man was back. "Okay, right this way." He led them into an office, and gave Bucky too many tests and papers that took too long to fill out. He counted himself lucky to be left handed. When the papers where done, it was sparring. The man was nice, friendly even, and lost very badly. The shooting rage might have even been fun if the Phil person and a dozen other agents hadn't been watching him. Swimming was next _. Ugh, Water._

The man- _Phil_ \- handed him a cloth something that was folded neatly. It was heavy.

"This is a wet suit, but it's made to weigh and feel like what you will be wearing on the field. "I will warn you: It carries a lot of water. I've just got to get a few times, and it looks like you're done." He smiled at Bucky. Bucky tried to match it. _Awkward_.

He turned toward the locker room without a word, and Steve followed. The door shut behind them, causing a loud echo.

"Hey, Buck. Wait a second." Steve said.

"Yeah?"

"Just relax, okay?" Steve hugged him.

 _Ugh. Hugging_.

 _Shut up, you._

He changed quickly. "Zip it. I can't reach." Steve laughed a little, but complied. Not two seconds later Bucky had his hand on the door. "Just a warning. He's kind of a fan. Of us. He was one of the kids that grew up on all those comic books and trading cards. He'll probably want you to sign something."

"As long as it's not one of those stupid bears." Bucky grumbled, voice almost too quiet to be heard.

Steve laughed. "Just warning you. Freaked me out when he asked me. No idea why; I was always signing things back during the war."

"That was a long time ago." Bucky said.

"Yeah." Steve looked down at the floor, shuffling his feet a little. "We better get out there."

Bucky breathed deep, and opened the door.

"Alright, for this you have to swim 500 yards, dive down and grab that weight and set it up on the side of the pool in fourteen minutes. Ready?"

"Yes, sir." Bucky walked over to the edge.

"Whenever you're ready. I'll start timing when you dive." Phil said, all smiles. _Ugh._ Bucky looked down at the water. He wasn't there anymore.

 _Russia, 1956. Rough hands grabbing him. Rough chains holding his feet and hands._

 _"_ _Go again."_

 _"_ _But sir, he's already-"_

 _"_ _I said go again. He can rest after he gets out of the bindings." The rough hands shoved him under the ice-cold water with a sigh. He gasped for that last breath of air a second too late. He managed to pop the wrist chain before the cold took over every inch of his body and panic took over his mind and darkness took over his eyes. Always, always cold-_

"-Hey, Bucky, hey. Are you okay?" Steve at his side _. Warmth._ Bucky shrugged Steve's hand off his arm.

"I'm fine." He growled. He took a step forward, sucked in a deep breath of the warm, humid air- _gross_ \- and dove in.

He pulled himself out after tossing the weight out of the pool, slightly gasping for breath.

"Just over eleven and a half minutes. Great!" Phil said.

"Yeah, great." He said, the intended enthusiasm falling short on his lips.

"Well, you are good to go. Thank you, and I will get these results back to you as soon as I can!" Steve and Phil exchanged a few words, none of which Bucky's mind was able to process, and then they were in the elevator, and then in their room.

"You gonna be okay?" Steve asked warily.

"I'm fine, Steve." To sharp. Making the words go was hard enough, making them go nicely was nearly impossible. Who knew the floor could be so interesting?

"Tony wants me to look at something in his lab, so I'm gonna go. Try to relax, okay? You won't have to do anything you don't want to." Steve placed a frim hand on Bucky's shoulder, and lingered for just a second before walking out the door.


	7. Chapter 7

"Spider-Baby!" Clint yelled as he ran to the lady at the door of the common area. She was carrying a little boy, who looked about four or five.

"What are you yelling about?" Bucky asked, walking into the room.

"Spider-Baby's here!"

"Hi, Clint! Is Steven here?" The woman was middle aged, of average hight, with medium length wavy blonde hair. "Oh, hi, there! You must be Bucky!"

"Yeah. How did you-"

"Steve's told me all about you! He's so happy to have you back, you know. Anyways, I'm Aunt May. It's nice to meet you!" She said.

"You, too. Did you need Steve?" Bucky asked her.

"Yes, he said he was going to watch peter today, and maybe help with some training?" She said.

"I can go get him, or I could just take him, I mean if you don't want me to I'll g-"

"Sure! Peter, this is Bucky. He's going to take you to Steve, alright sweetie?" She kissed him on the cheek, then handed him over to Bucky, along with a bag of Peter's things. "Bye! I'll be back around 8 tonight."

She walkout the door.

"Can you put me down, please?" Peter asked.

"Yeah, sure." Bucky sat him down. "I guess I'm supposed to take you to Steve. I think he's in the training room."

"Okay!" Peter grabbed Bucky's hand, and smiled at him. Bucky looked down at him, and couldn't help but smile a little. Clint ran ahead of them. When they got to the training room Clint had already informed Steve of every part of the previous event.

"Hey, Peter!" Steve said. Peter let go of Bucky's hand, and ran and jumped into Steve's arms.

"What are we doing today?" Peter asked, still hugging him.

"Well, how about you go play with Bucky and Clint in the common room, while I finish up here, then we'll see. Sound good?" Steve asked.

"Mhm." Peter said, and walked back to Bucky after Steve sat him down, grabbed Bucky's hand, and said. "We can go now."

As they walked back up to the common room, Steve text Bucky. _Sorry. Should have asked you. Just play T_ he Jungle Book _on the T.V. and he'll be fine. I'll be up in 10 min._

 _It's fine. I will._ Bucky text back.

"Uh, Clint do you know how to work the DVD player?" Bucky asked.

"Are you serious?" Clint said. "Pete know's how to work a DVD player, and he's a baby."

"I'm not a baby!" Peter protested.

"You're a baby until you're five, and you're four." Clint stated.

"I'm not a-"

"It's okay, you're not a baby." Bucky said, giving Clint a stern look, and faintly shaking his head. "So do you guys like The Jungle Book?"

"Yes!" Clint and Peter said in unison.

"Well Clint, how about you put it on, then." Bucky asked.

Just about half an hour later, Peter was asleep in Bucky's lap, Clint was asleep leaning on his shoulder, and Bucky was starting to nod off.

"Sorry it took me so long, Sam needed a spot-" Steve stopped abruptly. He pulled out his phone and took a picture of the three of them curled up, asleep on the couch. He smiled, and went to the kitchen to get something to drink.

He sat down on the other couch, and sat there in silents for several minutes.

"Hey, Steve, is Peter-" Tony Started.

"Shh." Steve said.

"-here." he said quietly. "What?"

Steve pointed to the other couch. "Oh. That answers my question."

Tony sat down on the untaken side of the couch that Steve was on, and played around on his phone for minute.

"Want some coffee? I'm gonna go make some." Tony said, and got up.

"Sure." Steve said.

Natasha walked. She had been at a meeting/debriefing "Awe, they're cute." She said, looking at the three boys. "What have you been up to, Steve?"

"Nothing really. Are they gonna need us to go in?"

"Some of us. Nick told me to give this to you." She said, reaching into her bag. She pulled out a file. "It's Bucky's." She smiled, and walked to the kitchen.

Steve decided to let Bucky sleep for a while. It could wait, even though he wanted to see the results. Steve didn't want to look at them with out Bucky, since they where his after all.

He walked to the kitchen where Tony was staring longingly at the coffee maker as it brewed, and Natasha was sitting on the counter eating a blueberry muffin.

"Seems like you're friends adjusting better than you thought he would." Tony said.

"Yeah, I didn't know what to expect, honestly." Steve said.

"Yeah, me either. I thought he was gonna be a psycho killer, but he's actually pretty chill." Tony said. Steve gave him a look. Tony hadn't exactly been happy about Bucky coming to stay with them. "What do you think about him, Natasha?"

"I think you shouldn't talk about ex-assassin slash spies when they're in the next room over, and possibly listening to everything you're saying." She said.

Tony paused for a second. "Good point." Tony said, as he poured his coffee. Steve got cup out for himself. "So, what did Nick say about the undercover thing?"

"He wants to talk to two of us about it tomorrow." Natasha said.

"Who?" Tony asked.

"We haven't decided."

"We?" Steve said.

"Yes, 'we'. I'm Fury's eyes and ears for the next 24 hours." She said.

"Now you're just trying to get on our nerves." Tony said, as he walked to go sit at the table. They both followed him. "I have another meeting tonight, and I'm gonna die. They're gonna try to convince me to make more suits again, even though I already said no a hundred-million times."

"Just cancel it." Natasha said.

"I can't. They're also gonna talk funding, and the leader of that one charity is going to be there, and I need the publicity."

"You mean you want the publicity." Steve said.

"Whatever. I can't skip this one. I'm going to schedule the next month off of meetings. I've been working on this prototype for Sam's wings, and I need to finish a few other projects. Also I need some time off. I'm to young for this." Tony said.

"So in other words, Pepper wont go to the meetings for you, so you're not going to have them at all?" Natasha asked.

"I made her mad the other day. I don't even remember how. I sent her flowers and everything, and she still wont talk to me." Tony crossed his arms on the table and played his face down on them. "I'm gonna fall asleep in the middle of this meeting."

Bucky walked into the kitchen, and basically fell into the chair beside Steve.

"Hey there." Steve said. Bucky nodded, and rubbed his eyes.

"Peter and Clint are asleep on the couch." Bucky said sleepily.

"I know. You got your scores back. You wanna look at them now or later?"

"Yeah…" Bucky said. His head fell forward, and he caught it just before it hit the table, and jerk back upright. Natasha laughed. He leaned back in his chair, and crossed his arms and closed his eyes.

"I guess that means later." Steve said. They sat and talked for a while, while Bucky half listened. A few minutes later Bruce wandered into the Kitchen, and sat down beside Tony.

"Where have you been, man?" Tony asked. "I haven't seen you since dinner the other night."

"Are you serious Tony? What did we talk about?" Steve asked. Tony was supposed to take care of Bruce, and had basically been failing at it. No one really ever knew where Bruce was or what he was doing, and since he tended to want to keep to himself, Tony had let him much to Steve's dismay.

"Chill Cap- sickle. He's fine on his own." Tony said. Steve gave him a look that said _we'll talk later.  
_ "I've been working on some stuff." Bruce said.

"What stuff?" Tony asked.

"I dunno just some stuff. Are we still working on that program? Because I had a few ideas."

"Oh, yeah. I actually finished the robot thingy that it's for, so we just have the program." Tony said.

"Why'd ya ditch us?" Clint said, yawning. He sat down in the chair next to Bucky. Peter crawled into Steve's lap. Bucky didn't answer. Steve elbowed him, and he jerked upright.

"Yes." Bucky said.

"I fink you need to do back to sleep." Peter said.

"Team meeting?" Sam walked into the room, and sat down next to Natasha.

"Yeah, we forgot to invite you." Tony said.

"I see how it is. Looks like it was boring anyways. Half of you are barely awake." Sam said. They all sat and chatted back and forth for nearly two hours. It was nice to have some peace, and time together. It didn't seem to happen often.

But Natasha's thoughts kept going back to the mission that Fury had assigned to her. She knew Steve wouldn't be happy, but Bucky was the only one besides herself qualified for undercover work, especially to this extent, and they needed two of them.

She was the only one who knew exactly how qualified he was. She had watched him sweet talk his way into places he should never have been able to get into, and find his way to people who where thought to be unreachable while he was the soldier. And she had come to know what he was going to do before he did it, what character to play to go along with his. They had been team, after all. The soldier and the Widow. She picked up her phone, and searched Nick Fury's name.

 _I choose James._

send.

 **Okay, so its about to get some action, and some more of Natasha and Bucky. My three favorite things. Hopefully chapter eight will go faster. I've been working the past few weeks, so that's why it's taken so long. Thanks for reading. Please comment**


	8. Chapter 8

"So I passed?" Bucky asked as the went over the scores that night before they went to bed.

"Yep." Steve said. "So they'll do CPR and First Aid training with you, and a driving test, and you'll be ready."

Bucky smiled as he looked at the papers.

"Well, goodnight." Steve said, as he got up from Bucky's bed and walked to his own. He would't admit it, but he was scared. He knew even though the test results said otherwise, Bucky wasn't quite ready. Bucky knew how to lie and Steve knew this. He used to tell all kinds of stories to adults and other kids, although he could never seem to lie to Steve. Not only that, he didn't want Bucky in danger again; he didn't want to loose him again, and he knew that by putting him back in the field they where putting him back against HYDRA. He knew they would never escape it, escape them, and even if they could it would only be temporary.

Fury had insisted that Bucky take the tests, and Steve still hadn't figured out why. Fury had argued that they needed his skill sets, that he would be useful to the team. Steve had argued that Natasha had the same skills and that Bucky wasn't ready, but Fury insisted he was. He said he was going to ask him personally, but Steve said it would be better for him to ask so he had. And Bucky said yes, as was expected. Steve fell asleep with these thoughts floating through his mind.

 _His lungs burned, longing for air, as he struggled against the man holding him under the ice cold water. All he had to do was let go of the fear gripping him and slip loose from the mans hold, but instead all he found himself able to do was thrash wildly in a panic. His lungs where screaming "breathe"_ , _and just as he was about to give in he was roughly pulled up out of the water. Some one yelled at him, but his brain didn't even try to process it as he gasped for air. He was ruffly shoved back under. This time he gave in._

Bucky woke up gasping for air, as he jolted upright in bed. He calmed himself down and looked around the room. Steve wasn't there. Fear gripped him again. He looked around. The door was cracked slightly. Then he remembered what Steve had said. _I like to sit up here and draw. I come out here at sun rise some times, or at night when I can't sleep._

The tower was dark and quiet as he made his way to the roof. As he walked he thought of the times he had made his way through places just like this. Clients door was open, and he could see him sprawled out on the opposite side of the bed with sheets tangled around him. He kept walking, careful not to make a sound. He walked up the stairs two floors to the roof, and Steve was there. he was sitting on the edge of the roof, with his legs dangling over the edge, watching everything go on below. He heard the door open and he was on his feet immediately.

"It's just me." Bucky said.

"What are you doing up?" Steve asked.

"Couldn't sleep."

"Yeah, me either." Steve said, and sat back down. Bucky walked over, but sat behind the ledge with his legs crossed. Heights still didn't settle right with him some times, but that was understandable. A part of him wanted to grab Steve and pull him back away from the edge. Steve shifted a little, and Bucky grabbed the back of his shirt. Steve looked back at him.

"Sorry." Bucky said, letting go.

"It's fine." Steve scooted back from the edge. They sat side by side for a while, just watching the city below.

"It's always busy down there." Steve said.

"I miss being a part of it." Bucky said.

"Me too."

"All the loudness, and the rushing, the cops eyeing us because we never seemed to have parents around, the milk man that I worked for yelling at me for sneaking out a bottle here and there, or when I had that job with the newspaper and I had to but into all the craziness for a paycheck, all that."

"Yeah, and when you'd get done with all your work and jump up on the counter at the shop and talk Mr. Jameson's head off till I got done. I miss him. He helped us a lot."

"Yeah, you would have died that winter."

"No I wouldn't've."

"Keep tellin' yourself that. You would've froze and got sick and died if he hand't given us the extra money. I still wonder how he mustered it up."

"I wouldn't have died, but it did help."

"You know, you're lucky you weren't put in an orphanage." Bucky said.

"Yeah, you say that all the time."

"It's true. That would have been terrible. Just think how different everything would be if we had been caught."

"They wouldn't have caught us. They didn't even catch that you where 15 when you enlisted."

"Yeah, but If I had been caught they would have just found my dad and sent me home. You could have gotten sent to an orphanage and died."

"Why do you always say 'you would have _this_ and died' like I was always dying." Steve said, slightly annoyed.

"Because you _where_ always dying Steve. You literally always had something wrong with you."

"But I wasn't dying."

Bucky shot him a look.

They sat there for a little while longer, watching the city. The sky was starting to turn from black to a pinkish shade.

"So, what was the deal with the water the other day?" Steve asked. It had been on his mind every since. "I'll listen if you want to talk."

"I don't know." Bucky said, not looking away from the city below.

"Don't know or don't want to talk about it? It's fine if you don't."

"I- I guess I don't want to talk about it. I don't know."

"I'll listen if you wanna tell me about it."

"I know. It was part of my training with Hydra, and I didn't really catch on to it. I don't know why; I always swam at home, but I don't know. I almost drown a few times, and it's always kinda there you know? I had to be able to get out of all these holds and stuff under water, and I don't know. I just- I can swim and stuff, but when I get around water I just think about being trapped and sorta panic. I don't know. "

"Thats okay, you know. You're allowed to be scared of things."

Bucky shrugged.

They sat there talking off and on until the sun was up.

"Clint, just eat it." Natasha said.

"I can't." Clint said, frowning at the bowl of oatmeal in front of him.

" _Clint._ " Natasha warned.

"I _can't._ " He said again.

"Yes, you can." Sam said.

"I can't eat it. Why are you teaming up on me." Clint looked to Tony for help.

"I'm staying out of this." Tony said.

"Can't I eat cereal?" Clint wined.

"No. Now eat it." Natasha said, eating her own bowl.

"I _can't_ eat it."

"Yes, you _can._ And you're going to. I put sugar in it. It's good." Natasha said.

"I'll Puke." Clint said.

Natasha walked over to him. "Eat it. Now." She said, standing over him.

"Natasha-" Clint started, but was interrupted by Natasha.

"Sam's eating it, Bruce is eating it, even Tony's eating it."

"I can't eat oatmeal." Clint said again.

"Why?" Natasha asked.

"Because, every time I'm eating it it feels like I'm eating boogers."

"Aaand I'm done." Tony said, getting up from his chair and raking what was left of his bowl into the trash.

Natasha glared at him.

"Bucky eats oatmeal." Sam said.

"I don't think he does." Clint said.

"He does. When he was your age thats all people ate." Tony said.

"That's not true." Clint said.

"He does eat oatmeal though." Natasha said. "It going to get cold. Look, if you would just eat it, you could go play."

Steve and Bucky walked into the dining area.

"Whats for breakfast?" Steve asked.

"Oatmeal. You guys look like zombies." Natasha said.

Steve shrugged, and got a bowl of oatmeal for himself and Bucky. He and Bucky sat down. Steve ate, and every now and again looked up and smirked at Bucky. Bucky looked at the oatmeal and winced.

"Bucky doesn't like oatmeal either!" Clint declared.

"I never said-" Bucky started.

"You guys lied. I bet you've never even seen him eat it before." Clint continued.

"It doesn't matter if Bucky doesn't like it, because he's going to eat it since he does what he's supposed to do."

"I-" Natasha cut Bucky off.

"Right, James?" She sounded just like his mother. He couldn't say no if he tried.

"Right." He said, trying to sound determined. She nodded at him, signaling for him to eat it. He picked up the spoon and stared at the oatmeal. Steve laughed. Bucky put a spoonful in his mouth. He really did try to eat it, but there was no way he was going to get it down. He made a face, got up, walked to the garbage can, and spit it out. "Sorry. I can't- I cant eat it. I'll puke. Every time I try to eat it, all I can think about is snot."

Steve and Sam where laughing, and Natasha was glaring.

"SEE?" Clint yelled. "Thats exactly what I said!"

"Steve, you deal with them. I have things to do." Natasha said, and she left.

Bucky looked over at Steve.

"Um." Bucky couldn't think of anything to say. He walked back to his seat and sat down.

"So do I have to eat it?" Clint asked.

"Eat two spoonful's and you can have a muffin instead. You too, Bucky." Steve said, teasing Bucky. Bucky fake smiled, then glared. Why.

The two managed to choke it down, and ate a blueberry muffin, and as they where putting their bowls away Bucky's phone buzzed. It was Natasha.

 _I need to ask you about something. Meet me on the first bedroom floor balcony at 8:30 (A.M.). Don't let Steve know what you're doing or where you are going._

That was in about twenty minutes. Sam and Steve where talking, and Clint had already run off to who knows where.

"I'm gonna go brush my teeth then walk around for a little while." Bucky said.  
"Okay. We're training in about and hour if you wanna join us." Steve said.

Bucky nodded, and walked off.

 _I'll be there._

 **Guys I wrote the oatmeal thing based off of how I feel about it. I've never been able to get it down. Nobody seems to understand. Let me know if you feel the same way. We can protest against oatmeal together.**


	9. Chapter 9

"Hey." Natasha said as Bucky walked on to the balcony.

"Hey." Bucky walked over to where she was standing.

"I have a question to ask you, and I didn't want anyone else to know about it just yet. I want your answer to be based off of what you want to do, okay? If you don't want to you don't have to, but I think you're ready." She said.

"Okay." Bucky said, eyeing her suspiciously.

"I'm going on a mission. And under cover mission, and I was supposed to pick one of the Avengers to go with me. You're the best one out of the rest at this sort of thing. It will be in Europe, probably all over the place. You don't have to give me an answer right-"

"I'll go." Bucky interrupted.

"Are you sure you don't want to think about? Maybe sleep on it?"

"No. I'll go. It's about Rumlow isn't it?"

"Yes. He escaped from prison and went into hiding. We've tracked him as far as we could, but Europe is as narrowed down as we could get."

"He's in Manastir Draca, Serbia."

"How do you know that?" Natasha asked.

"Because I know him, and I've been there. There's a house that Hydra owns, that they come and go from. The basement leads to these tunnels that run throughout the woods. I helped escort Stalin there for a meeting after the war, and Rumlow and I took Alexander Pierce there about five years ago. There's always people hiding out there."

"We're leaving in four days, and we have a debriefing with Fury tomorrow afternoon. I'll tell him what you told me."

"Alright."

"I'll send you a list of things you need to bring." She left, but Bucky stayed for a little while longer.

"Hand me the blue thing." Tony said to Steve. He was working on his latest project and was currently underneath it.

"Here."

"That's not even blue, Steve."

"Are you sure? Wait, it's green isn't it." Steve said.

"The one you have is green. The one I want is- Never mind- Bruce can you get it? Steve is having trouble with his colors." Tony said.

Steve rolled his eyes. "I just got them mixed up." Keeping colors straight had proven to be a challenge for Steve, since he had been color blind until, in his time line, recently.

"Yeah, he just got them mixed up." Sam said as he walked into the room. He startled Tony, who bump his head on what ever he was working on. Sam was always trying to aggravate anyone and everyone.

"Don't do that." Tony said. Sam grinned.

"Have you guys seen Clint?" Sam asked.

"He's probably with Bucky or Natasha. I haven't seen them in a while." Steve said.

"I asked them, too. They hadn't seen him since breakfast."

"Are you serious? Do you think he did it again?" Tony asked.

"It looks like it. I've looked all over the place." Sam said.

"Bucky, Natasha, and I can go look around town for him. You guys keep a lookout here." Steve said, and walked out of Tony's (and Bruce's) lab.

 **The One about Clint Barton, or Chapter 9 1/2.**

Everyone was doing there own thing, and I couldn't find Natasha or Bucky anywhere. Even Steve didn't know where Bucky was. So, of course I ditch the tower. I know I'm not supposed to, but… Well I had to. It gets _so_ boring there sometimes. I managed to slip past everyone, and was walking through a familiar ally when I ran into a familiar face, but sadly not a friendly one. Tracksuit Guy's Leader. I caused them some trouble a little while back. Like, three months ago, and I they've been kinda following me ever since.  
I'm gonna assume you want to hear the story. Here it goes.

Okay, so, what happened was I sneaked out like today, and I made it pretty far away from the tower, also like today, and I managed to tick them off about the apartment they're renting out. I have some friends that live there and Tracksuits where illegally raising the rent and stuff. So, I threatened to call the cops, but they have them paid off. And yeah, they got mad. They basically beat the crap outa me and I returned the favor to the best of my ability.  
Anyways, I was walking down this ally and I see him, so naturally I turn around and run in the opposite direction, and naturally he follows me, along with two other guys. I manage to get a head when we round a corner and I turn down and ally. I needed to find somewhere to hide, so, of course, I jump into the dumpster. I waited there for, like, a long time, and I was gonna stay there for a little while longer when the top opened and a kid jumped in right beside me.

It kinda scared both of us, because when you're hiding in a dumpster the last thing you expect is for some one else to be there too. We both banged out heads on the top of the dumpster. And I may have screamed like a little girl.

"What are you doing here?!" They kid asked me. He was scared.

"I-uh-I… What are you doing here?" I asked back. I couldn't think of anything to say. We both kinda stared in the general direction of each other for a while, because it was to dark to be able to see much.  
"Who are you?" He asked.

"Clint Barton, you know Hawkeye."

"Never heard of you."

"Well, you must not get out much then. I'm an Avenger."

"I'm DareDevil."

"What's you real name?"

"I'm not telling some random kid I found in a dumpster. I have a super hero Identity for a reason."

"C'mon. I told you mine."

"Nope. Not telling. I don't tell anyone. How do I know I can trust you?" He said.

"You can trust me. I'm and Avenger." I tried to convince him.

"I don't even know if thats true. I literally met you five minutes ago. Do you know how weird it is to meet someone hiding in a dumpster?"

"You're hiding in a dumpster, too. Who are you hiding from, anyways?"

"Just some guy. I don't really know who he is, but I beat him up because he wasn't being very nice. Who are you hiding from?"

"Have you seen those guys that hang around about a block from here? They wear red tracksuits with the yellow stripes?" I asked.

"I don't know."

"They have, like, Russian accents?"

"Oh, the ones that have that apartment?" He asked.

"Yeah, them. I rubbed them the wrong way."

"Wow. Well I can probably go now."

"Me too." We lifted up the top and climbed out. He's wearing T-shirt, jeans, and a red hat that goes over his eyes, but it has a little eyes on it that are a different fabric, but I don't know how he can see out of it. "So, where are you going?"

"I dunno. I guess I'll go back to the place I'm staying at."

"You don't have home?"

"Well, sort of. The guy that trained me had this place, and I stay there sometimes."

"You don't have any parents?" I asked.

"No."

"Me either." I said. "You wanna come back to Stark towner with me? There's a lot of room."

"You don't live in Stark tower."

"I do. I'll prove it."

"Okay. I'll go with you."

"Follow me." We take a few short cuts, and get back in about an hour and a half. I get up to the common room and Tony's waiting there.

"Where have you been?" He sounds upset.

"Uh-"

"Steve, Bucky and Natasha are out looking for you!" Tony said.

"Sam stayed here?"

"Shut up. I'll call them. Sit on the couch and don't get up till I tell you to." Daredevil kid laughs, and sits down with me. Tony waits on Steve to answer. "Who's that?" Tony asked pointing to Daredevil kid.

"He's Daredevil."

"Uhuh. We're gonna talk."

"Should I-" Daredevil kid starts.

"Nah, he's just mad that I left."

Tony says some thing to Steve, and they get here in about half an hour. We're still on the couch.

Yeah.

I can hear them chatting in the entrance hall, but I can't really make out what there saying. Steve walks over to us. "You can't keep running off, Clint. Who's this?"

"Dare Devil." Dare Devil Kid says.

Steve looks at me, then back at him.

"Okay, well, what are you're parents names?."

"I don't have any. Clint said I could stay here. I'm like you guys."

"Did he? What's your real name?"

"What's yours."

"Steve Rogers."

"Wait, you're Captain America?" Daredevil kid says.

"Yeah."

"Oh, so you wont tell anyone who I am?"

"I can't promise you that, but I wont tell anyone that you're DareDevil. And neither will Clint. _Right_?"

"Right." I say.

"Matt Murdock."

"Alright. Don't move until I get back." Steve walks away and calls some one. Probably Phil. He's kinda in charge of us? I guess? The whole set up is weird. Steve is legally an adult because he was born in like a million years ago, and Tony's been emancipated, but has some special deal with S.H.E.I.L.D. same thing with Natasha, but Phil is in charge of taking care of us sort of? I don't know what the deal is.

Steve walks back into the room. "You're going to meet with Phil, and if you actually sent have any guardians you will probably be able to stay hear under certain conditions." Steve said to Daredevi- _Matt._

"What about me?" I asked him.

"Make sure it doesn't happen again." I nod. I guess that means we can go?

"Clint you can go, but do _not_ leave this floor without telling Sam."  
"Okay." I can handle that.

"Matt, we're going to go see if everything checks out with you." He goes with Steve.

"Uh, Sam? I'm going to my room." I said.

"I'll walk with you."

A little later, Steve comes back with Matt.

"You can stay here until we get everything settled."

"Hey." Matt says as he walks over to my bed where I'm sitting.

"Hey. Did you meet Phil?"

"Yeah. He was cool."

"What about Bucky? Did you meet him?"

"Isn't he the Winter Soldier person that the government was after?"

"Yeah, but he's not a bad guy. He really cool. He has longish brown hair, that he keeps in a bun sorta thing, and he was wearing a red under armour shirt. You may have seen him."

"Oh, um. I didn't see him."

"Well, you'll get to meet everyone tomorrow."

I fill out my journals and stuff then we go to bed, but not exactly since we stay up until, like, 3 A.M.

 **M'kay, so I didn't edit chapter 9 1/2 because it's supposed to be Clint writing it so it can be not so good and editing is pain. Thanks for reading and please R &R. Also, new chapter coming soon!**


	10. Chapter 10

Bucky stood in front of the bathroom mirror, scissors in hand. He sectioned of the top layer, breathed in, and began to cut. He cut it nearly the same as Steve's, but a little longer on top. He cleaned up, washed his hair, and dried it with a towel. He dried it with a with a towel. It was begging to regain some what of a loose curl. When it had been longer he had always brushed it and pulled it back, and if it he hadn't, it seemed to straighten out.

He walked out of the bathroom, and Steve was sitting in one of the chairs on the wall opposite the beds, reading. Hearing Bucky walk out, he looked up. His eyes widened, and he just stared for a second.

"Does it look okay?" Bucky asked, running his hand through his hair nervously.

"Uh- Yeah, actually, it looks great. It's just a big change that I wasn't expecting is all." He said with a laugh. It was drastically different, all though exactly the same as he had had it before and during the war.

Bucky ran and jumped onto his bed. "I'm going to sleep." His face was buried in the pillows, and causing his voice to be muffled.

"I guess I will, too, then." Steve said. He set his book down on his nightstand, turned the lights of and got in bed.

"Oh." Bucky said, and turned on the lamp on his night stand.

"What?" Steve asked, as he sat back up to look at Bucky.

"Natasha and I are- I didn't tell you earlier because I didn't know what you'd say and I don't like to tell you things in front of everyone, but I know what I'm doing, I think anyways. I'm ready. But, Natasha and I are-"

"Dating?" Steve asked, a hint of excitement or maybe eagerness in his voice.

"What? No!" Steve could see the blush creeping onto Bucky's face, even in the dim light. Bucky stared at the floor, and took a second. "She wants me to go on a mission with her, and I said I would."

"Oh." Steve said. It was completely monotone. There was no hint or indicator of any meaning. Just "Oh." Bucky had expected him to have said something more like "Are you sure?" or "Shouldn't you think about it a little first?"

"I know you don't want me to get in anymore trouble or anything, but they need me. They're going after Brock Rumlow, and no one knows Hydra like I do. Especially Rumlow, I mean, I've been around him a lot and I've been on the inside. I-"

"You should go." Steve said.

"What?" That was not the answer he expected. He knew even though Steve had seemed been encouraging him to go ahead and take the field test, he was nervous about Bucky going back into the field. A mission where he was going after one of his "Handlers" that may lead anywhere in the world, with Natasha Romanoff was not ideal. Especially for his first mission away form Hydra.

"If you feel ready you should go." Steve said. Bucky could tell he was sincere.

"You think it would be okay?" Bucky asked. Something Steve had noticed about Bucky since he had been away from Hydra was his somewhat lack of independence. Although Bucky had always asked for Steve's opinion, and Steve likewise asked for Bucky's, it had been hardwired into Bucky's brain that he needed confirmation from someone else before making a decision, small or large.

"I'm not your mom, Buck. You're the only one who can decide this. No one is going to make you go, and no one is going to make you stay. It's you're choice. Don't feel pressured by them to go, but don't feel pressured by me to stay. This has to be your choice. No one else's." Steve said. Even though it had only been about a week since they had been officially reunited, he had been to pick up on these little things that had changed.

They held eye contact for a long while. Bucky suddenly looked at the floor. "Oh, okay, well, goodnight." He turned the light off and rolled over to his side.

"Goodnight." Steve said

It was silent for nearly half and hour, but Steve could tell there was something else Bucky was needing to say. He didn't know how long it would take him to say it, but it wasn't worth it to fall asleep before Bucky said it.

"I mean, I was going to go if you wanted me to or not. I mean, I would go but I would want you to be okay with it, but even if you didn't want me to I would still go. But not in a "I'm going just because you want me to" way. More of a "I'm going because I need to go, and you're being bossy" kind of way. No, that was rude. I mean I can make my own decisions, like, on my own and-"

Steve laughed, and cut him off. "I know you can." Steve said. He had learned many years ago that if he didn't cut Bucky off, Bucky wouldn't stop talking for quite a while.

"Like when I got offered that job and said no. I made that decision without asking anyone." Bucky said.

"Yeah. I still don't know why you said no." Steve said. It had been just after they had moved in together, and Bucky had set out to find a job. He had gotten an offer for $25 dollars a week to do paper work and filing at a news paper company, and had turned it down because it had been a paper work job. He later (several months later) had realized that it had been a very stupid decision, and had gone back. This time he was offered a job writing for the news paper instead of just filing them away, and had excepted it.

"Me either. But I have made some good decisions, like when I left home. No, that was dumb, too."

"It wasn't dumb, or a decision, really… If you want to go on this mission, go. It might be good for you. You'll get to know Tasha better, and I know you want to." Steve said. You could hear the smirk in his voice. "And you don't make dumb decisions all the time. Just sometimes. All of us do. I mean, some more than others, but everyone makes them." He said as an after thought.

"Okay, yeah, thanks."

"Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

Bucky woke up at about 8:00 o'clock A.M. Steve was already up (He was always up early). Since he was going to a meeting with fury, he decided to wear some of his clothes that weren't sweat pants and rummaged through his draws to find the pair of dark blue jeans and the blue button up. He walked to the bathroom, and looked in the mirror. His hair was sticking up in every direction, and wouldn't seem to go into place, and after multiple attempts to comb the curls out he decided it didn't look _that_ bad. He got dressed, brushed his teeth, and walked down to the common room.

He walked into the kitchen, got a cup of coffee, and sat down in his seat. Clint and the kid Steve had told him about where sitting opposite to him. Clint looked like he was about to fall asleep on his bowl of cereal, and the other kid was staring straight in front of himself, not focused on anything in particular. Clint looked up at Bucky and his eyes went wide.

"What." Clint said. "Did you _do?!_ "

"I cut my hair."

"Why?!" Clint was yelling now.

Bucky snickered. "Uh, I don't know. Long hair was kinda gross. I didn't really like it, I guess."

"But now you don't look like the same type of cool. I thought you where Tony when you where getting coffee!" Clint had calmed down somewhat.

Bucky laughed. "Have you seen Steve anywhere?"

"Why? Does he not know either?" Clint asked.

"Yeah, he knows. I was just wondering." Bucky said.

"I guess he's with Sam or something. I haven't seen him. Ya know, you're really attached to him. The first thing you ever ask me is 'Where's Steve?'. Oh! This is Matt. He's staying with us. Matt, this is Bucky." Clint said.

"Hi." Matt said, with out making eye contact. He looked just as tired as Clint. Bucky studied him for a second.

"Are you blind?" Bucky asked.

"What?" Matt said. He had a bit of an alarmed expression on his face, and he looked over at Bucky.

"Are you blind." Bucky repeated.

"You can't just ask people things like that, Bucky. It's rude, and he's not blind. Why would you think that?" Clint said.

"Uh, well, actually-" Matt started.

"What." Clint said, deadpan.

"I am."

Bucky laughed. "Did you tell them yesterday?"

"Uh, no." Matt said.

"You should tell Steve, then. I don't think it'll be a problem." Bucky said.

"Why would you lie to me?" Clint asked.

"I didn't?" Matt said.

"Why didn't you tell me? I asked if you knew what Bucky looked like and you just said 'no.'." Clint asked.

"Well, I don't." Matt said.

Bucky choked a little on his coffee. Clint decided to let it go, and they carried on with a new conversation. Bucky drank his coffee, and the other two ate their breakfast. Occasionally Bucky would contribute to the constantly changing conversation, but he mostly kept his focus on drinking his coffee.

Steve, Sam, and Natasha walked into the kitchen. They where covered in sweat, and wearing their workout clothes. Bucky had yet to join them at there workouts. He preferred to do it on his own, for now at least. It was a good source of alone time, which whether by his own causing or the fact that he was living with several different people, he didn't seem to have very much of it.

The three each got some coffee, Sam got a bowl of cereal also, and they sat down at the table with the others.

Sam and Natasha's eyes kept going back to Bucky. He almost looked like a different person. Bucky knew Sam had something to say, he always did, but he just kept staring.

"Stop staring and say what you're gonna say." Bucky said, after a few minutes of the starring.

"I didn't know Steve could cut hair." Sam said.

"He can't." Bucky replied.

"I can't. I always mess it up." Steve confirmed.

"You've not been anywhere, so, Natasha?" Sam asked, looking over at her.

"I didn't do it." She said. Raising her hands in defense.

"I did it myself." Bucky said.

"Well, it looks really pretty." Sam said. Bucky rolled his eyes.

They sat silently a while, but it wasn't long before Clint blurted out "He's blind!", and pointed at Mat. Steve looked over at Bucky and raised an eyebrow; and Bucky nodded his head. Nobody said anything. They all decide silently that Coulson could find out on his own.

Bucky's phone buzzed. He checked his text messages.

 _Just reminding you about our meeting today._

Natasha had text him from across the table. He hadn't seen her do it, and guessed no one else had either.

 _Didn't know if you wanted anyone to know yet._

He text back. _It doesn't matter. Steve knows. It wont be a problem._

 _Good,_ She said.

Later, Bucky and Natasha meet up at at the door leaving the common room.  
"Are you ready?" She asked. She was wearing black pants, and a dark green shirt.

"Yeah." Bucky said. They went down the elevator to the floor Tony had allowed for SHEILD to use, and Natasha knocked on Fury's office door, and walked in. He wasn't there all the time, he was usually at the official SHEILD building, but he had an office at Stark tower, too.

"Natasha, James. How are you?" He said. He was sitting behind his desk. On his desk where two files, ands a medium sized box.

"Fine." They both said in unison. There where two chairs in front of the desk. Natasha sat down, and Bucky followed suit.  
"Here's the mission." Nick said, as he handed them the files that had been stacked on his desk. "And here's you're suit." Fury opened the box. He pulled out a full body suit. It was solid black, but as it came up from the waste it was split. The split section had an America flag type pattern made to look similar to Steve's. _Seriously._ Bucky thought. Second he pulled out a black pair of pants, and a black jacket. _Better._ Furry placed them back in the box and handed it to Bucky.

"Now, a few things have changed since I last talked to you, Natasha." Fury started. "We're still after Rumlow, and the leads you gave us where correct, and we where able to locate him. But just as he was leaving. We lost track of him, but we know he is still in Europe. Your job will be to find him, and get as much intel on any Hydra bases, or agents that you can find. Once you are close to finding him, contact us and we'll send in a team to help you bring him in. You're not to shoot if at all possible." He made direct eye contact with Bucky as he said not to shoot Rumlow. Bucky maintained the eye contact. Fury went over a few more things, and they all departed.

Two days later they where set to leave. Bucky was in his room making sure he had everything he needed, or Steve was making sure he had everything he needed. Bucky was laying on his bed watching. They hadn't talked anymore about Bucky leaving, but Bucky could tell Steve was a little anxious. Bucky wasn't sure how he felt about going on a mission again. He was excited, but at the same tim he almost felt… Angry. He hated Rumlow, and Fury knew that. Anyone that had read his file would only be right to assume Bucky would hate Rumlow. Bucky had tried to track him down while he was on the run, but could never quite catch him. He had tracked him down to being in Serbia, but Steve had distracted him from that. He had planed on putting a bullet in Rumlow's head, and disappearing again.

Although he was glad things had turned out how they had, he still wanted to rid the world of Brock Rumlow, and he realized he wouldn't be able to do that in the meeting.

He decided that he would go with SHEILD's plan. Bucky knew that they where stupid to want to bring him in alive. He had escaped the first time they had him, and Bucky was tempted to go against his orders. But he didn't want to start off on a bad foot. While he knew he couldn't break the rules he could bend them, and that was something he had learned to do effectively at a very young age. He was actually going through different scenarios of what would be counted as "not possible" to bring him in alive when Steve told him he had forgotten to pack his toothbrush. He got it, and handed it to Steve.

"Are you okay?" Steve asked.

"Yeah, why?" Bucky replied.

"You where making a face. Kinda like when Dum-Dum was teasing you about-"

"You don't need to finish that sentence. And I'm fine." Bucky smiled, and went back to his bed. He actually fell asleep, and slept until it was time for him to leave. Steve woke him up.

"It's time to go." Steve said.

"M'kay." Bucky mumbled. He got up and grabbed his bag. The two stared at each other for a few seconds. The both went in for a hug at the same time.

"I'll see ya." Bucky said.

"Call me anytime." Steve said. Bucky nodded. He found Natasha and they left.


	11. Chapter 11

"This is where we're staying." Natasha said as they hopped out of the cab. They walked to the hotel, which was very nice. They walked went to their room, and Natasha opened the door. They sat their bags down. It was a suit with two bedrooms and a main area. In the main area there was a couch and a chair situated in front of a T.V., and against the same wall as the door there was a small kitchen set up.

"You wanna take the room on the left?" Natasha asked, as she was already going towards the room towards the right. Bucky didn't bother to answer. He thought it was odd that they would stay at a nice hotel when it had nothing to do with their mission. He sat his bags down on his bed, and walked back out to the sitting area.

"C'mere." Natasha said. She was still in her room. Bucky stepped in. "Here's the weapons, and earpiece. Keep this one with you at all times, go ahead and put the earpiece in, and this is yours, too. Here." She said as she went through a large box containing all of this. She handed him a black hand gun and a riffle. "Oh, and these are yours, too." She handed him an assortment of knives. "And this is for your arm." She opened a small black box. It had a mesh looking sleeve in it.

"I've worn something like that before when I was with Hydra." Bucky said.

"Wanna try it on? You'll probably have to wear it most of the time. I'm actually surprised they just now gave it to you." Natasha said.

"Yeah, me too. And sure." He slipped his shirt off and slid it on as far as he could, and Natasha helped him put it on the rest of the way. As soon as it connected with skin on his back it changed color, and looked just like a real arm. Natasha's phone buzzed.

"Let's go. Fury said for us to check out this restaurant a block away. He said it was one of the places that SHEILD has been keeping an eye on." Natasha said. Bucky slipped his shirt back on, and grabbed the hand gun off the bed where Natasha had laid it.

They walked to the restaurant, and where seated.

"So?" Bucky asked.

"Go get lost. If anyone says anything, you know what to say and you know what you're looking for." She said. Bucky nodded and stood up.

Bucky stood up, and started down the hallway. He and Natasha had discussed what they where looking for on their way. At the end of a hallway there was a door. He opened it and looked in. It was a janitors closet. He dug around through all the stuff, and found a small red book that looked familiar. It had a black star on the front. He grabbed it and began to flip through. It was written in Russian and there where pictures of him, sometimes other people, familiar people where in the pictures. He read a little of the first page, and immediately closed it, and hid it in his jacket. It was full of Hydra's notes on him, and a record of every move he had made over the last 70 years.. Bucky had to force him self to calm down, and continued to look for whatever else he could find. He found a small file and tucked it in his jacket, and headed back to Natasha.

After they where back at the hotel Bucky gave her the red book and file, which also happened to be about him.

"It's all about me." He said. Natasha flipped through it. "I've seen it before. It has all kinds of codes and trigger words different methods for things they used to do to me. C'mere." She followed him to the bathroom and shut the door behind her. Bucky turned in the shower.

"Really?"

"Hey, it works." He paused. "Nobody needs to get this book. Not even SHEILD." He said, looking Natasha in the eye.

"I know. I wont tell them, but we have to figure this out. We have the book now, but whats in it could still be floating around." She said.

"Rumlow, Pierce, and just a handful of the other Hydra agents even know about the book and not all of them know what's in it. Rumlow is basically the only person to worry about, since Pierce and the more important of the others are dead. This is the only copy, though." Bucky said. Natasha nodded.

"If we find him, we can't kill him, and I know that was your plan. We have to find out if there is any of this information hanging around. He's our only way of finding out." She said. He knew she was right. He did want to kill Rumlow and had tried while he was still on the run, but he knew that though many of Hydra's secrets about him where out and that even though SHEILD had tried to keep his coming back quiet, things had still gotten out. The press had been all over him after Steve had uncovered SHEILD as working with Hydra, and the Winter Soldier had been discovered. He had been running from the government, from SHEILD, and he knew he would have eventually been brought in and then who knows what would have become of him if Steve hadn't had an influence. If what was written in this book got out he knew he wouldn't stand a chance.

"I know. We can't just give SHEILD nothing, though." He said.

"We can give them the file, tell them half truths. It wasn't as important." She said. Bucky nodded.

"I guess the bright side is we wont have to hunt him down." Bucky said. Natasha agreed. They left the bathroom, and Bucky read over the book. It only made him angrier to read it. He didn't want to kill anyone. He really didn't. If he could bring back even one of the people he had killed, he would do so in a heart beat, but Brock Rumlow was an exception. Some people the world was just better off without. Natasha must have noticed the face he was unconsciously making, and snatched the book from him. He looked up at her from where he was sitting, a bit startled.

"Don't think to hard about it. It's not going to do you any good right now." She said, soft look on her face. She took the book and placed it somewhere in her room. Bucky realized there where tears on his face. He went to the bathroom, and tried splashing water on his face to make himself relax, but it didn't work. He decided a shower, then bed would be the best option, since it was getting late, and Fury hadn't sent them any updates on what to do.


	12. Chapter 12

**Oh, wow. It's been over a year since I've updated this. Honestly, going back and reading over it is slightly (hahahahaha a lot more than slightly) cringy. But here's a new chapter that I wrote a year ago, but re-wrote tonight. The updating of the story just proves how far I will go to procrastinate. Finals are in four days, but here I am updating a fanfiction from a year ago. Oh well, thank ya kindly for reading. Hopefully I won't wait a year for the next update, and my wring skills have improved.**

Natasha sat down with the book, and read over the page Bucky had been reading. It was a report about a man that Bucky had been assigned to assassinate years an years ago, along with whomever else happened to be in his house that night. There had been three people killed, the man, his wife, and their young child. The report said strangulation on all three, and the house was burnt down. She tossed the book to the side, and ran her hands over her face with a sigh. She pulled a small flip phone out of her purse. Tony had made them for everyone just in case they needed a secure line that was actually secure, which was more often than any of them wanted. She walked into the bathroom, turned on the shower like Bucky had before, and called Steve.

"What's wrong." Steve said, answering immediately.

"Nothing yet." She said.

"You think somethings going to happen?" He asked.

"We found something at the restaurant that Hydra is using for storage. It's the book with all of the Winter soldier mission reports and instructions."

Steve paused for a second. "Did Bucky see it?" He asked.

Natasha sighed. "He was the one that found it. He was reading it when we got back to the hotel half an hour ago, and started doing this weird crying thing where he's not exactly crying. There's just tears."

"He does that."

"I took it from him and told him not to worry about it." Natasha said.

Steve paused. "What's he doing now?"

"He's in the shower. Steve, if this book gets out he will be in so much trouble. I don't know if we-"

"I know. You haven't told anyone at SHIELD have you?" He asked.

"No. We didn't think it would go over very well. Steve, I don't think he remembers half the things that are in here."

"He doesn't." Steve said. "He's gaining memories slowly and it's so bad when he does, Natasha. Sometimes he doesn't sleep for days afterward."

"I don't think he remembers me." Natasha said. "I know it's selfish, after all he's been through, but I can't stop asking myself why he doesn't."

"Do _not_ tell him I said this, but he talks about you all the time." Steve said. "And he thinks you're cute."

Natasha paused. "Uh." She paused again. "Do you think I should try to keep the book away from him for now, or let him have it? I know if I keep it he's not going to come asking for it."

Steve didn't laugh, thank God. "Keep it. We can talk when you all get back. I'll ask him about it, but it's your call." Steve said. "Thanks for letting me know. Do you want me to fill Sam and Tony in, or just keep it between me and you?"

" _Not_ Tony. I better go. He just shut the water off." Natasha said, as she fiddled with the file. This was going to be a mess. Everything was with Bucky.

"Call me if you need anything. Bye, Tasha."

Her phone beeped signaling the call ending. She sighed as she sprawled out on the bed. This was going to be a long trip.

 **Aaaaand there it is, boys. Hopefully there is more to come sooner than later. Thank you all so much for reading, and comments mean the world to me (hint-hint, wink-wink).**


	13. Chapter 13

"I read some of the book." Natasha said. Bucky looked up at her. "If you kill him, I'll make sure no one finds out it wasn't necessary." Bucky nodded, cocked his gun, slipped it into the waist of his pants. "You know, I understand. I had a handler- a Rumlow. Coulson covered for me. One less jerk to deal with later." Bucky didn't respond. He got out of the car, and the sound of the car speeding away along with Natasha's words rang through his body.

 _Breath._

 _Walk_.

He stepped into the warehouse.

The way the inside of the building look further proved SHEILD knew absolutely nothing about who they where dealing with. It was empty, yes, but there where hallways, offices, _video cameras_. It had, been well used previously.

 _Great._

Natasha better hurry.

"Hey, there, Soldier." A deep, gravely, dangerously familiar voice came from somewhere behind him. Bucky whipped his gun out and pointed it at the man. He felt his muscles tightening at the sight of that man. Brock Rumlow stood right in front of him, body littered with burn scars, cocky grin spread across his face, was standing right in front of him.

 _Breath._

Rumlow held his hands up in mock surrender. "Relax kid. Not gonna do anything." He paused, smiled that sickening smile. "Not yet anyway." Bucky still didn't move from his position. Rumlow rolled his eyes. "You know, there are a lota people lookin' for you. Including myself. Rumor has it some old guy in Russia is willing to pay 25 million for you. Was afraid to ask what for."

"To bad I'm not for sale."

"Not yet." He took a half step forward. "Rumor also has it that your instruction manual slash diary is out on the loose."

"That's too bad." Bucky said.

"I wouldn't show it to the Captain, might break his heart all over again."

Rumlow lifted his foot to take another step. Bucky gritted his teeth. "If you take one more step, I swear I will kill you."

Rumlow smiled. "Tables have turned a little, haven't they?" Bucky didn't speak. "You've got me. What now?"

"Haven't decided."

Natasha's voice crackled through his earpiece. _"James, the building is going to blow in seven minutes, and there's a van in the back. Had a little skirmish, but we're in the clear now. I'm almost too you."_

"Sputnik."

He felt his hand let go of the gun, heard it hit the floor with a clang. He felt his mind going black, and the cold floor. That was all.

"-Bucky, Bucky."

 _Ow._

"Wake up."

 _What?_

"Soldat." _Firm._

Bucky looked up wide eyed.

"Hey, it's me. You're okay." _Natasha_. He lifted himself up off the ground with a slight groan. He looked over at Rumlow. He was laying face down on the ground.

"Is he-?"

"Tranquilizers." Bucky nodded. "I called for some back up. I'd say twenty minutes, and we are on our way back to Manhattan."

"Was I out long, or?" He ran his flesh hand over his face.

"Ten minutes, give or take." She said. "You missed the fireworks."

Bucky looked around. He was outside now, the building was no longer a building, and the ruble was burning. He sighed and let himself fall back to the ground.

"What happened?" Natasha asked.

"I don't know. He said something, and I don't remember after that. I just sorta, passed out. Don't remember what he said either."

"Don't tell anyone. You helped me drag Rumlow out of the building."

Bucky nodded. SHEILD reinforcement came and took Rumlow. They didn't really ask any questions, and they were sent back to Manhattan. It was two in the morning when they arrived back at Avengers Tower. Steve didn't stir when Bucky slipped into their room and quickly changed and slipped into bed.

 **Aaaannddd this is short and late. I have no excuse.**


End file.
